11th Sep 2019 12:01
(Alliance News) - Tower Resources PLC on Wednesday said it is "quite frustrated" with continued delays to work beginning at a well in Cameroon, which mean it will require new funding.
Shares were 24% lower on Wednesday in London at midday at 0.55 pence each.
The main focus over the six months to June for Tower was resolving logistical challenges for the Njonji-3 well, as well as securing financing.
In April, Tower discovered former operator Total SA had not fully explored the site, and as a result Tower had to get a drilling rig over from the Americas to West Africa, which will not arrive until later in September. Further, Tower believes it will more likely finish the survey in October or November, meaning it would not be able to spud Njonji-3 until December.
The well should be suitable for bank financing, Tower said, but it has not been able to secure any. It is now in farm-in talks with "several" parties.
"Overall, we remain confident about the Thali licence and the Njonji development. However, in the meantime we will still need to raise some funds for working capital, because we have very little cash on hand," said Tower.
"Altogether we have been busy all summer and making progress on our projects, even though we are quite frustrated at the delays to getting our NJOM-3 well underway in Cameroon. But we are continuing to press ahead as fast as we can, and we look forward to having more concrete news in the near future," it added.
Tower reported a pretax loss of USD1.6 million for the six months to June, narrowed from USD3.4 million, with no revenue in either period.